Hekla
by starlight.moon.princess
Summary: In hindsight, accepting Iceland's offer to go skiing probably wasn't one of America's best ideas. Of course, he had no idea about Hekla and the gates to hell when he did.


_Milly, love, here's some Iceland for you :)_

* * *

It started with a blond. Well, everything usually started with a blond, but this blond was rather different. For one thing, he was nowhere near his little part of the world. For another, he was sulking.

"I am _not_ dumb!" American pouted, guzzling down a gallon of milk. "It's not my fault that Denmark and Norway look the same! Besides, what kind of Scandinavian country doesn't have mountains and snow and _skiing_?"

The pale man at his side nodded sympathetically, passing him another bottle of milk. "Poor America," Iceland said. "Imagine, not going skiing when you're in Scandinavia!"

"And now Norway and Sweden have gone for some sort of meeting with Finland and Denmark, so I can't even go there!"

Iceland continued nodding, part of his mind deep in thought. After a few moments, he brightened considerably. "Tell you what, America, I'm going skiing in an hour. Why don't you come with me?"

At that question, the other man perked up too. "I'd love to! Do your mountains have snow? Oh, and do you have any skis and stuff that I can borrow? I left all mine in Denmark."

"Don't worry about equipment. As for snow – well, I can promise you that there will be a _lot_ of snow."

Maybe if American hadn't been lost in blissful thoughts of gently skiing down a snow-covered mountain, he would have notice the mischievous smile on Iceland's face. Probably not, but it would have been so much better if he had.

* * *

"What did you say the name of this mountain was again?" American asked, peering down the snowy slope nervously. "I didn't think it would be so cold here!" he continued, shivering in his heavy winter gear.

"This is Hekla!" Iceland announced proudly, surveying the scene in front of him. "And this isn't just some mountain," he scoffed, "It's a volcano! In fact, it's one of the most active volcanoes in Iceland! It erupts almost once every ten years – it just erupted in 2000, in fact! It's my favourite volcano in the whole country."

"A- A volcano?" America stuttered, looking down at the slope with a newfound nervousness. "Pl- Please tell me you're joking."

"Why would I be joking?" he asked confusedly. "It really is a volcano! In fact, it's one of my favourite places to ski! You'll have a lot of fun, wait and see – we just need to wait for some of my friends to get here before we can start."

Before America could say anything, Iceland caught sight of something in the distance. "There they are!" he exclaimed excitedly.

America looked at the dark shapes that were slowly coming closer nervously. Normally, there was nothing that could scare him – he was _America_, after all – but Iceland had already proven that he was insane. Nearly as insane as his sister, in fact.

"Just what _are_ they?" he asked as the black shapes came closer, and became recognisable as some sort of mutant black dogs. "They don't look like dogs, exactly…"

"Oh, they aren't!" Iceland exclaimed cheerfully. "They're baby hell demons – they like spending time with me, and I promised I'd take them skiing today. Do you want to pet one?" he asked, offering one of them to America.

"_Hell demons?"_ he asked in shock instead of taking the demon. "_HELL DEMONS?_ Where do you get them from, exactly?"

"I thought you knew," the pale man said, blinking at America innocently. "I did tell you that this is Hekla, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, this is the gate to hell! You know that, right? The babies live inside the volcano, and they like spending time in the outside world, so I said I'd take care of them – after all, I've spent time with nearly all the demons. Well, apart from the ones like the dark matter demons," he added as a throwaway comment. "They have too much fun ripping people's guts open to be good company."

"D- Demons?" he stuttered. "The gate to hell?"

"Umhmm," Iceland hummed in agreement. "It definitely means that I'm never bored, I can assure you of that. And, of course, it keeps Norway and Denmark from destroying my home whenever they're sleeping over. Now come on! It's time to ski!"

"M- Maybe some other time."

"Don't be silly. It's fun, and besides, who knows when you'll be here next?"

Iceland looked at him expectantly. Had it been anyone else, America would have just run away, but the demons were staring at him too, just waiting for him to start skiing.

* * *

"And it was horrible!" America explained, nearly in tears. "There were demons, and the gate to hell, and it was horrible! I don't want to go to hell! I'm a good person, I don't deserve to be there! I'm never returning to Iceland again!" he exclaimed, shivering in fear.

"You might want to explain that to Iceland, eh. You wouldn't want his feelings to get hurt," Canada sighed from his spot on his brother's head.

Honestly, brothers. Sometimes, he thought he had been better off with France, before England had adopted him and introduced him to the crazy person he now called his sibling.

"Demons, Canada! Demons!"

* * *

**The idea for this one was pulled from the 'I Need Mountains' comic, and the numerous comics featuring Iceland and his downworldly pets. America's characterisation pulled from the fact that he's just about the most religious regular character in the strips - I don't think he'd be too okay with demons or gates to hell.  
Skiing down Iceland's Hekla is actually possible, according to the Internet :P  
**

**I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)**


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